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Comment by krona | Hacker News Reader

Quite. And anyone of German nationality doesn't have a leg to stand on! Let's not even start with the Turks.

... and the conclusion should be that we all encourage each other to become better and pressure our governments to make better laws.

A flawed past is the worst excuse against striving for a better future.

It does feel a lot like it would be better if we tried to become better rather than encouraging others. There's plenty of room for improvement everywhere, but something about specks, eyes and beams.

I spent almost a year in Germany and one thing I learned, and really appreciated, was that they were open and honest about the Holocaust and their role in it. It’s taught in schools. It’s never brushed over.

Compared to say Japan.

EDIT: not sure why the downvotes. Japan's whitewashing of war atrocities (eg Nanjing [1][2]). Is this Japanophilia? Or just that I'm not denouncing the current German education system?

[1]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nanjing_Massacre

[2]: https://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-21226068

I went to Japan in the 90s. The amount of leftover Nazi symbols (carved everywhere, marked on city maps where old depots were, etc) and casual use of Nazi references in literature was shocking.

You sure those weren't actually Manji? They mark where temples are.

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-35349619

Manji are oriented correctly. They are ALL over. The signs for what is and is not a swaztika are also at every temple.

Any inhabitant of the temples will explain how german visitors would (infrequently) vandalize the temples. Not the intentional decoration (which is obvious) but the crude carvings into random wooden walls. I'm a little surprised that you can no longer find images of these carving after a few minutes of searching on the web. That's unfortunate, but I stand by my observations.

... What the hell?

On the contrary. Anyone of German nationality HAS to speak up about these things.

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